1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for lamination by sandwiching an object between upper and lower heat-reactive laminating films and applying heat and pressure thereto.
2. Related Background Art
Lamination is used for various objects for improving the appearance or preservability thereof. FIG. 10 shows a conventional laminating apparatus used for such lamination.
FIG. 10 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of an conventional laminating apparatus, wherein shown are an upper heat-reactive laminating film 100 and a lower heat-reactive laminating film 100'. These films are respectively rolled as an upper sheet roll 101 and a lower sheet roll 101'. Said laminating films 100, 100' respectively wrap around a heating roller 102 and a pressure roller 102' and are pulled at the front ends by pull rollers 103, 103' for giving a predetermined tension to said films. At the centers of said heating roller 102 and pressure roller 102' there are respectively provided heaters 104, 104' for heating said rollers.
At the downstream side (left side in FIG. 10) of said pull rollers 103, 103', there is provided a cutter 105 for cutting the front and rear ends of the object after lamination.
A feed table 106 is provided for supporting an object 107 to be laminated, which is inserted, along the feed table 106, into the nip of the heating roller 102 and the pressure roller 102', where the upper laminating film 100 and the lower laminating film 100' mutually meet.
On said laminating apparatus there is provided an operation unit, which is equipped with switches 108, 109 for manually setting the transporting speed of the heating roller 102, pressure roller 102', and pull rollers 103, 103', and the peripheral temperatures of the heating roller 102 and the pressure roller 102'.
In case of laminating an image recording sheet released from an image forming apparatus with such conventional laminating apparatus, there is required a cumbersome operation of bringing the image recording sheet, released from the image forming apparatus, to the laminating apparatus and manually setting said sheet into the laminating apparatus. Also such laminating apparatus is independent form the image forming apparatus so that there is required a large space for the installation.